Bound by Blood
by CinnibarRose
Summary: The New York invasion was a test; Loki was actually on their side. There's a real threat emerging, and the leaders are demons. S.H.I.E.L.D is forced to seek help and shelter in the mysterious island the enemies came from. Sparks of both kinds fly between Loki and a male vampire who seems strangely familiar. And Durante has a dark secret one that could change the outcome of the war


**Bound by Blood**

** New York invasion was a test and Loki was actually on their side; 's a real threat emerging, and the leaders are demons; 3.S.H.I.E.L.D is forced to seek help and shelter in the mysterious island the enemies came from; of both kinds fly between Loki and a male vampire who seems strangely familiar; and 5. Durante has a dark secret – one that could change the outcome of the coming war – for better or worse. This threat will be a far greater challenge for the Avengers than the Chitauri hoax ever could have been. **

**Author's note:** this first chapter was inspired by the fic _Seriously_ by Ordis. You can find it in my favourites. So if this seems similar to it, yes i did take inspiration from it. I admit it. All future chapters however will be my own work. This story is the prequel to 'The Humiliation of the Avengers', describing how Loki and my OC Durante got together. Rated for swearing and sexual content - some of it explicit.

**Chapter One – What Really Happened**

_"They treat you like a doormat, expecting you to fail,  
Says right across your forehead  
'integrity for sale'"  
-'Kiss it Goodbye', Nickleback_

**Loki**

**I cannot believe** this. I cannot.

After my fall from the Bifrost I had not expected to still be alive, much less land on Midgard and be recruited by the same organisation that bothered Thor while he was in exile. But that is how it was. I became an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, and the first mission given to me by the one-eyed Director Fury was straightforward: "I want you to pull together a fake invasion force as a teamwork test for a group of super heroes – to see if they will be able to work together." Perhaps not so straightforward in practice, but simple enough in theory.

What I hadn't counted on was my 'brother' Thor, the God of Thunder, being part of said team. Or that neither he nor any of the other members – patriotic super-soldier Captain America/Steve Rogers, so-called genius Iron Man/Tony Stark, the just plain angry Hulk/Dr. Bruce Banner, master archer Hawkeye/Clint Barton, and equally master spy Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff – knew it was just a test.

They ALL thought it was real, and that I really was trying to take over the Earth! Even my so-called brother, who didn't once stop to think how NOT like me this invasion was! I had no interest in taking over Midgard – heck, I wouldn't even be here if I wasn't virtually in exile from Asgard – and even if I WAS out to take over the Earth I certainly wouldn't do it like this. And look what the end result was: at least a hundred people dead in four days, much of New York City devastated, and me humiliatingly swatted around like a two year olds plaything.

And I had every intention of giving Fury a piece of my mind.

The other agents on the helicarrier wisely got out of my way as I stalked down the hallways to the conference room, still battered and bruised from my earlier pounding into the concrete floor of Stark Tower – which now rather ironically was labelled 'A' Tower. An agent – probably fairly new by the looks of them – stopped me just outside the steel door of the conference room. "Umm, aren't you -?"

"Get_ out_ of the way, mortal."

They did, hurriedly.

Standing in front of the door I took deep breath to stop myself from just blasting it open and knocked, unhurriedly but probably harder than necessary. There was no answer.

"Fury, you have five seconds before this door has more holes in it than Swiss cheese."

I counted down in my head. Five, four, three, two, one. I raised a hand, magic dancing at my fingertips. And the door opened.

Well. Hm. Just as well I didn't let that one loose.

Fury was in there, but he wasn't alone. Barton and Romanoff were both with him, looking none too pleased by my arrival. The former, in fact, looked rather like he wanted to follow up on his earlier threat and actually 'stick an arrow in my eye socket'. At the moment I couldn't really bring myself to care. Still… an absent movement of my hand later and the bow was missing its string and all the arrows were foam. At least Romanoff wasn't trying to shoot me. That was a start.

"It was a test." I ground out. "To see if your little bunch of heroes was up to the task of saving the world. And you let them do THIS to me?"

The man in black at least had the good grace to look faintly apologetic. "This is not how I anticipated it going-"

"Oh believe me, I know. If it was I wouldn't have a greed to it." Romanoff, and Barton particularly, were starting to look perplexed, and faintly angry.

"What the hell, Fury?" Barton demanded.

"Not now, Barton. This isn't the right time-"

"Like fuck it isn't," he replied curtly, gesturing to me. "What's he doing here? And what does he mean it was a test?"

"Indeed, exactly _when_ were you planning to tell your little team we're on the same side?" I asked just as curtly, eliciting a groan from the Director.

"Later, Agent, later."

"Well that's helpful," I began, when a shocked Barton interrupted.

"Woah, woah, woah, wait a minute! 'Agent'? He's an agent?"

"Yes Barton, I _AM_!" I snapped, thoroughly peeved. "And to think I was actually _flattered_ when I was asked to put SO much effort into pulling this little test together! I had to find a couple hundred aliens to actually invade the place – do you have any idea how much work that was? Some thanks I got for it, too." I added, brushing at the dust that still coated my armour. "So I'll repeat the question: when and HOW are you planning to tell the 'Avengers' that this was all just a test?" This was met with silence.

"One hundred people." Barton turned to him. "More than one hundred people were killed. Did you plan that, Sir? And Coulson?" his voice cracked slightly.

"Honestly, Barton, it's the price I'm willing to pay to have you lot ready for when a real threat arrives. And Coulson-" a shadow flickered over his face. "He knew the risks. He died for something he believed in."

I blinked several times. Coulson? They thought he was dead? I knew for a fact that he wasn't – I had just visited him in medical before I came here to give Fury something. He was fine, I had very deliberately avoided stabbing him too close to his heart or lungs. He was a good man, after all.

"Coulson?" I demanded. Two sets of eyes, plus one, looked at me. "You think I killed Coulson? I assure you Director, the only risk to his health at present is a possible heart attack when he finds out what you did to his vintage Captain America cards."

"But-" Fury began, only to be cut off by Barton.

"So what the fuck was with the mind control?" he sounded furious himself, and I don't really blame him.

"Obviously I needed someone competent on the 'bad' side. For the love of – whatever – Barton, if I wanted to destroy you, I would have blown up that fourth engine along with the others! The tactics I used were _appalling._ I'm amazed that Thor did not pick up on the small fact that there was something not right about that picture." I added as a quiet afterthought. I turned to Fury.

"You had better tell them. I'm not returning to Asgard, whatever it does to your reputation. I didn't leave just to get kicked back there." I had my reasons for that, most of which I had no intention of revealing.

Fury sighed, but nodded reluctantly.

Romanoff finally spoke up, having remained quiet and thoughtful-looking during the whole conversation. "So it wasn't the Hulk."

I smiled faintly. I knew what she meant, that occasion when I was in the cage and she had 'extracted' information on what I planned to do next. It was a test too, a test on her interrogation skills. "No."

She stood up, walking slowly over. "Well, I guess that leaves one thing left to say then."

"What?" I asked warily. Barton was still glaring at me, clearly not over the mind control. Fury wasn't looking at anything, probably entertaining the notion of how he was going to break the news to the others. I had every intention of being there when he did.

Romanoff smiled, to my astonishment, holding her hand out. "Welcome to the team."


End file.
